Fibre collection apparatus

ABSTRACT

A fiber collection apparatus comprises wire, cable or the like supported in an endless configuration having a plurality of straight runs disposed side-by-side to serve as fiber collectors, drive means to drive the wire cable or the like through the endless configuration so that said runs travel in one general direction, and means to apply suction through the gaps between said runs.

United States Patent Inventor Frank Sansom Cullen Victoria, AustraliaAppl. No. 777,445

Filed Nov. 20, 1968 Patented Mar. 16, 1971 Assignee lnsulwool ProductsPty. Ltd.

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Priority Nov. 20, 1967 Australia30,061/67 FIBRE COLLECTION APPARATUS Primary Examiner-Richard E.Aegerter Att0rney--Waters, Roditi, Schwartz and Nissen ABSTRACT: A fibrecollection apparatus comprises wire, cable or the like supported in anendless configuration having a plurality of straight runs disposedside-by-side to serve as fibre collectors, drive means to drive the wirecable or the like through the endless configuration so that said runstravel in one general direction, and means to apply suction through thegaps between said runs.

ulllllllllllllll" 4 Claims, 8 Drawing Figs.

U.S. Cl. 198/190 Int. Cl 365g 15/12 Field of Search 198/184, 187;198/190; 271/74 f 1221 5 90 z/ "i 17 "i \r 0 l PATENTED m1 6 :91:

v sum 1 or 2 as COLLECTHQN APP TUS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Fieldof the Invention This invention relates to the production of mats ofmineral, glass or other fibers and is particularly concerned withapparatus for collecting the fibers as they are formed.

2. Description of Prior Art In the manufacture of glass or mineralfibers mats, attenuated fibers are formed in a stream of hot gas. Moltenraw material may be flung into the gas stream by centrifugal action of aspinner or primary filaments may be produced by direct extrusion from afurnace and then fed into the gas stream for attenuation. In eithercase, attenuated fibers are formed within the gas steam and must becollected so as to form a mat.

The most common manner of collecting the fibers is to direct the gasstream downwardly onto a horizontal belt conveyor the belt of which isin the form of an openwork wire mattress. Suction is applied through themattress to draw the gas stream through it and cause the deposition ofthe fibers on the mattress so as to build up a mat which is carriedforward by the conveyor. The fibers are sprayed with a resin binder,usually while they are still in suspension in the gas stream beforereaching the wire mattress, so that they adhere together to form abonded mat which is delivered as a coherent structure from the end ofthe conveyor. In another means of collecting the fibers, two wiremattress conveyors converge so as to form opposite walls of a convergentcollection chamber, the other walls of the chamber being provided by apair of generally triangular plates extending between the edges of theconvergent conveyors. The whole chamber is disposed within a largesuction box and the .fibers bearing gas stream is directed into the openmouth of the chamber. The mattress conveyors are driven so that theportions forming walls of the chamber move from the mouth to the otherend of the chamber and fibers collected thereon are thereby broughttogether to form a single continuous mat.

In both of the above-described conventional collection means, the wiremattresses rapidly become clogged with fiber and resin making itimpossible to maintain constant conditions of suction to give a uniformmat and the cleaning of the mattresses is a major production problem. Itis also found that less fibers are collected at the edges of themattresses and the edges of the resultant mats must be trimmed off,giving substantial wastage. In the collection chamber type of apparatus,the stationary sidewalls also collect resin coated fibers and must beregularly cleaned. The present invention enables these and otherdisadvantages of the conventional kinds of fiber collection apparatus tobe overcome.

SUMMARY According to the invention there is provided fiber collectionapparatus comprising wire or cable supported in an endless configurationhaving a plurality of straight runs disposed sideby-side to serve asfiber collectors, drive means operable to drive the wire or cablethrough the endless configuration so that said runs travel in onegeneral direction, and means to apply suction through the gaps betweensaid runs.

Said runs may be parallel and arranged in a flat general plane. Forexample, said runs may extend between a pair of horizontally spaced,horizontal support rollers to take the place of the openworlc conveyorin a conveyor collection process. In this case the runs may be connectedby return runs extending directly between the rollersin a general planebelow the plane of parallel runs. The rollers may each be provided withcircumferential grooves to engage the wire orcable and maintain desiredspacing between the parallel runs and the drive means may be coupled toone of the rollers so as to be operable to rotate it and thus drive thewire or cable by friction.

However, as will be more fully explained hereinafter, the invention mayalso be employed to provide moving walls of a fiber collection chamberand in this case at least some of said runs may extend between mutuallyskewed rollers to define a twisted wall.

In order that the invention may be more fully explained, two

specific embodiments thereof will now be described in detail withreference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCION OF TI-E DRAWINGS tion of a further form offiber collectionapparatus constructed in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 6 is an end elevation of the apparatus shown in FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a cross section on the line 7-7 in FIG. 5; and FIG. 8 is across section on the line 8-8 in FIG. 5.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS i In the collection apparatusshown in FIGS. 1 to 4, the collection conveyor is defined by straightruns of a single wire 1 1 which is wrapped around a pair of horizontallyspaced and parallel cylindrical rollers 12,13 between which a longopentopped boxlike structure 14 extends. Structure 14 is formed of anopen-topped metal channel having sidewalls 16,17 and closed walls at itstwo ends 18,19 by end walls 20,25. Near the end 18 of structure 14, anopening is cut in the sidewall 17 to receive a rectangular duct 21 forconnection to a source of suction, such as an air blower (not shown).Oneside of duct ,21 extends across the structure 11 in a curve and isconnected to the sidewall 16 at the location 22.

The roller 12 is'rnounted on a supporting frame 23 which is welded tostructure 14 so as to extend from the end 18 thereof. Supporting frame23 comprises four arms 24 of angle iron disposed in two pairs one toeach side of structure 14 with the arms of each pair spaced verticallyapart. FIG. 1 shows the manner in which one end of roller 12 is mountedon support frame 23 and the other end is mounted in identical fashion.As shown in FIG. 1, the mounting shaft 26 of roller 12 is journaled inan end bearing 27 which is slidable on track strips 28 carried by arms24. An adjustment screw 29 is rotatably mounted at one end in bearing 27and engages a nut 31 which is welded to a plate 32 extending betweenarms 24. Screw 29 extends through an aperture in plate 32. and carries alocknut 30. It will be appreciated that the position of roller 12 can beadjusted longitudinally of box structure 143 by appropriate operation ofthe adjusting screws at its two ends and its alignment transversely ofthe box structure can also be adjusted.

Roller 13 is disposed between a pair of wing plates 33 welded one toeither side of structure is so as to project from the end 19 thereof andthe shaft 34 of that roller is journaled in bearings 36 carried by theplates 33.

The assembly thus far described is supported on a support stand 37having legs 38, a shelf 39, a table 41 and brackets 42,43 which projectupwardly from table 41 and are connected respectively to box structure14 and to the roller support frame 23.

One end of the shaft 26 of roller 12 carries a drive pulley 44 which isdriven via a reduction gearbox 4b and V-belt 47 by an electric motor 48,the gearbox and the electric motor being mounted on the shelf 39 ofsupport structure 37.

Rollers 12,13 are of equal diameter, this diameter being slightlygreater than the depth of box structure 14 so that each roller projectsslightly above the plane of the top of the structure and slightly belowthe bottom of that structure. Each roller is provided withcircumferential grooves 49 which are extending along the open top ofstructure 14 and return runs or spans 52 extending between the rollersand beneath the bottom of structure 14. The wire is wound in spirallikefashion to engage every third groove in each roller but its upper runs51 extend in parallel relation in strict longitudinal alignment withstructure 14 whereas the return runs 52 extend in parallel straight linepaths at a slight angle to the upper runs, the spacing between the wireruns being maintained by the grooves 49. Because of the very small pitchbetween grooves 49, the slight angle between the upper runs 51 and thelower runs 52 does not show up in the drawings. it will be appreciatedthat if wire 11 were simple wound as described above it would leave twofree ends one on either side of the apparatus. However, a pair ofcrossover sheaves 53,54 54 are disposed between roller 12 and structure14 to enable the ends of the wire to be joined so that the wire has anendless configuration. Sheaves 53, 54 are mounted by means of brackets56,57 on the end wall 18 of structure 14 one to each side of structure14 and one to the top and one to the bottom of that structure, i.e.adjacent diagonal opposite comers of the end wall 18. The upper run 51Aof wire at one edge of the conveyor does not extend to roller 12 butpasses around the upper sheave 53 and then passes downwardly and acrossthrough a span 58 to sheave 54 around which it passes to extend into thereturn run 52A on the other side of the apparatus. Sheaves 53,54 areangled to align with the straight line span 58 between the upper run 51Aand the lower run 52A which are thus connected.

The connecting span 58 of wire extends through a wire cleaning orstripping die 59 which is mounted on the end wall 18 of structure 14.Die 59 may be of any conventional construction and may simply consist ofa block provided with a die aperture through which the wire extends.

When roller 12 is rotated by operation of motor 48, it drives wire 11around its closed spirallikc configuration. The upper spans 51 then alltravel in one direction longitudinally of the structure 14 to serve as aflat conveyor travelling from right to left as seen in FIGS. 1 and 2 andthe return runs 52 travel in the opposite direction. Suction is appliedto duct 21 and a stream of gas and attenuated fibers is directeddownwardly on to the upper wire spans 51 toward the righthand end of theapparatus. The upper wire spans then serve as a fiber collectionconveyor and the open-topped part of structure 14 to the right of duct21 serves as a suction box into which gas is drawn downwardly throughthe gaps between the upper wire spans 51. The fibers collect on theupper wire spans to form a mat which is delivered as a coherentstructure from the delivery end of the conveyor.

Since the single wire 11 moves through a closed configuration, allportions of the wire regularly traverse the same path and each part ofthe wire passes through the cleaning die 59 during one circuit of theenclosed configuration. Thus all runs of the wire are kept clean by thesingle cleaning die. However, it will be appreciated that in cases whereclogging of the conveyor is particularly serious, several cleaningdevices could be provided. For example, a number of the return runs 52could be passed through stripping dies or steam cleaning devices. Asanother alternative, the wire may be diverted through a relatively largecleaning loop to pass through a cleaning bath and, if necessary, one ormore stripping dies. In fact, the wire could be run out to a pluralityof cleaning loops as it traverses one circuit. For example there couldbe a cleaning loop for every SIX upper r'uns.

Apart from its ease of cleaning, the continuous wire arrangement offersseveral other advantages over conventional wire mattress arrangements.The spacing of the wire runs can be adjusted to vary the width of themat so as to cut trimming wastage or to vary the suction conditions. Theadjustment may be carried out by jumping the wire runs between thecircumferential grooves 14 of rollers 12,13 so that the spacing betweenthe runs is varied. It is also possible by a similar adjustment to varythe spacing of the wire runs over the width of the conveyor to tune" theconveyor to the fiberizing pattern of the process so as to produce a mathaving even density over to allow for thermal expansion of the wire orto take up and let out wire when the spacing between the wire runs isvaried. It will be appreciated that the apparatus could be modified byspring loading one of the rollers 12,13 for this purpose or by providinga separate spring-loaded takeup roller.

Other modifications of the apparatus will be apparent to those skilledin the art. For example, rollers 12,13 could be ungrooved and thespacing of the upper wire spans 51 controlled by engagement with pins ona guide bar extending transversely across the conveyor adjacent one ofthose rollers. The guide bar could be arranged to pivot so as to varythe wire spacing. As a further alternative the rollers could be made upof a plurality of individual grooved discs separated by resilientspacers and could be provided with means to cramp them longitudinally soas'to vary the wire spacing.

The invention is not limited to conveyor-type collection apparatus andH68. 5 to 8 show the manner in which it can be employed to providemoving walls for a fiber collection chamber. in this case, the chamberis formed by upper and lower wire circuits denoted generally as 61,62.

Circuit 61 is formed by a single continuous wire 60 wrapped aroundrollers 63,64,65 which are arranged in a splayed, inverted-Uconfiguration and wide .cylindrical rollers 66,67 ,68 and 70. All of therollers are provided with circumferential, semicircuiar grooves arrangedat equal spacing longitudinally of the rollers and the wire 60 iswrapped in successive loops in a spirallike manner from one side of theapparatus to the other to engage these grooves and its ends are joinedby the provision of a connecting span 69 extending between crossoversheaves 71 in the same manner as the connecting span 58 and crossoversheaves 53,54 of the first embodiment. The runs of wire 72 extendingbetween roller 64 and roller 66 define a planar wall portion whereas theruns 73,74 extending between rollers 63,65 and roller 66 define twistedwall portions which merge with the planar wall portion.

Wire circuit 62 is similar to circuit 61 except that it is inverted andthe two circuits form a convergent collection chamber having wire wallswhich can be driven from its mouth 76 to its narrow outlet end 77.

In use, the apparatus constructed in accordance with FIGS. 5 to 8 islocated within a conventional large suction box and a fiber supportinggas stream is directed into the open mouth 76 of the chamber. The gas issucked through the moving walls of the chamber and the fibers arecollected on those walls and are converged at the outlet 77 of thechamber to form a mat which is delivered from the apparatus at 78. Thetwo continuous lengths of wire forming circuits, 61,62 can be readilycleaned by dies or steam cleaning devices in much the same manner asoutlined above in the description of the first embodiment. Furthermore,the arrangement has done away with the stationary plate sidewalls whichare usually associated with fiber collection chambers and all of thechamber wall area is effective to collect fibers and bring them into themat. As in the first described apparatus, the spacing of the wire runsforming the chamber walls can be varied to alter the suction conditionsand to tune these conditions to the fiber distribution in the gas streamso as to achieve a mat of uni'ionn density.

, I claim:

1. Fiber collection apparatus comprising a plurality of sheetlike arraysof wire runs defining walls of a fiber collection chamber having frontand rear ends, the front end being open, rear wire support meanssupporting said arrays of wire runs at the rear end of the chamber suchthat the arrays are flat and are in closely spaced parallel relationshipat the rear end of the chamber, front wire support means supporting saidarrays of wire runs at the front end of the chamber such that at saidfront end the arrays are of trough configuration and disposed inmouth-to-mouth relation to define the open front end of the chamber,said wire runs extending in straight lines in side-byside relationshipbetween the front and rear support means such that said arrays changefrom the trough configurations at the front end of the chamber to theflat configurations at the rear end of the chamber and are portions ofendless wire circuits, means to drive the wire through the endlesscircuits such that all said runs travel from the front end to the rearend of the chamber, and means to apply suction through the gaps betweenthe runs, whereby gas borne fibers directed into the chamber will becollected on said wire runs and brought together into a mat of fibersdischarged from the chamber between the flat wire arrays at the rear endof the chamber.

2. Fiber collection apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the frontwire support means comprises two sets of rollers, each set comprising aplurality of rollers disposed end to end in trough formation so as tosupport one of the troughed wire arrays.

3. Fiber collection apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the rearwire support means comprises a pair of elongate parallel rollerssupporting the flat arrays at the rear end of the chamber.

4. Fiber collection apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein each arrayof wire runs is defined by a single endless wire circuit.

1. Fiber collection apparatus comprising a plurality of sheetlike arraysof wire runs defining walls of a fiber collection chamber having frontand rear ends, the front end being open, rear wire support meanssupporting said arrays of wire runs at the rear end of the chamber suchthat the arrays are flat and are in closely spaced parallel relationshipat the rear end of the chamber, front wire support means supporting saidarrays of wire runs at the front end of the chamber such that at saidfront end the arrays are of trough configuration and disposed inmouth-to-mouth relation to define the open front end of the chamber,said wire runs extending in straight lines in side-by-side relationshipbetween the front and rear support means such that said arrays changefrom the trough configurations at the front end of the chamber to theflat configurations at the rear end of the chamber and are portions ofendless wire circuits, means to drive the wire through the endlesscircuits such that all said runs travel from the front end to the rearend of the chamber, and means to apply suction through the gaps betweenthe runs, whereby gas borne fibers directed into the chamber will becollected on said wire runs and brought together into a mat of fibersdischarged from the chamber between the flat wire arrays at the rear endof the chamber.
 2. Fiber collection apparatus as claimed in claim 1,wherein the front wire support means comprises two sets of rollers, eachset comprising a plurality of rollers disposed end to end in troughformation so as to support one of the troughed wire arrays.
 3. Fibercollection apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the rear wiresupport means comprises a pair of elongate parallel rollers supportingthe flat arrays at the rear end of the chamber.
 4. Fiber collectionapparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein each array of wire runs isdefined by a single endless wire circuit.